by Diana Seere
Gavin never appeared, never called her cell, never sent her a message through somebody else. At first she was calm, assuming business interfered, but after hours of serving drinks that night, she couldn’t think of any good reason that would’ve kept him away from her for so long. If he’d cared, if he’d thought it was important, if she was important, he would’ve contacted her somehow.
She began to fear the worst: he regretted getting too close. After saying good night to Carl and the other waitresses, she went to her room alone. Now she was angry.
That night, again she had bad dreams, again the wolves chased her, again Asher’s voice came out of the wolf’s mouth and warned her away.
When she woke the next morning, she felt drained and sad. Making it through the morning and afternoon without snapping at guests or coworkers took all her strength. She hid out in her room whenever Eva let her go and tried to distract herself online.
But an email from her sister only gave her something else to worry about. Her mother had intentionally hidden the date of her hip operation from both her daughters and was at that moment recovering in a hospital bed.
She says she’ll let me water the plants, Jess wrote in the email. But that’s it. She says she has a ride home and doesn’t want me missing any work.
“That woman!” Lilah cried at the screen of her phone. “Why are all the people I love totally crazy?”
By the way, your old friend from college, Natalie, called a few times. Might want to call her back, Jess added in the email. Lilah made a mental note to remember to call when she was home. She could go long stretches without talking to Natalie, and then a single phone call erased months or years.
But not now.
She tried to reach her mom on the phone, but the nurses said she was napping and wouldn’t put her through. Jess wasn’t answering either, leaving Lilah helpless, worried, and alone in the guest room. Too far away to do a damn thing.
By the time she was at her station serving drinks, her jaw was tired from grinding her teeth. She’d chewed off one beautifully manicured fingernail and was fighting the urge to chew off the heads of everyone around her.
Who the hell did he think he was? Making her fall in love with him and then leaving her like that?
He’s the One, she thought, not even knowing what it meant.
“You’re avoiding her.”
Gavin hated when Derry was right.
“I am shoring up strategic business relationships with major world leaders.” Gavin guzzled a bottle of water and searched his bedroom for another. The maid was slacking. He took the empty bottle and walked into his bathroom, filling it from the tap. The day had been an endless series of business meetings, mostly focused on intellectual property and international law. If Gavin heard the term “IP” one more time, he was going to tattoo it on his ass and just pull his pants down whenever the term was spoken.
That would liven things up.
“Is that a new way of saying ‘getting shitfaced with a group of guys’?” Derry joked.
“Do you have to be so vulgar?”
“You’re just pissed because I’m right.”
Gavin was halfway through the second round of water when he gagged, choking up half the volume in an enormous spray of liquid. Derry deftly moved out of the way, surprisingly quick for a man half the size of Paul Bunyan.
He was a live wire. Tense, irritable, easily annoyed, and utterly obsessed with the coming meeting with Lilah.
During which he would bare his true self.
He’d spent the better half of two days trying to create the perfect speech to explain this all to her. To explain him to her.
I’m a werewolf seemed too blunt.
I’m a shape-shifter with a life expectancy of two centuries seemed too out there.
We’re fated mates and you have to love me was too stalkerish.
Join with me and you can have my long lifespan and we will make beautiful shifter babies would have her screaming into the woods.
“And then there are those stupid football games,” Derry continued. When he smelled weakened prey, he always went in for the kill.
“I’m catching up on sports news. It’s the language of business.”
“I can hear you replaying that 2007 David Tyree catch over and over again. How is that up-to-date?”
“You wouldn’t understand if you’re not a football fan,” Gavin sniffed. “Which you aren’t.”
Derry gave him a hard look but said nothing.
“Why are you here? Did Asher send you on a little errand? Here to spy on me and report back to the boss?” Gavin asked, avoiding his little brother. He finished his water and stripped naked, without shame. The brothers had all seen each other in the wild. Their human form wasn’t any different when it came to modesty.
Turning the shower on, he walked back into his bedroom and waited for the hot water.
And an answer.
Derry’s brow lowered. “No. This has nothing to do with Asher. It has to do with you and your uncontrollable shifting.”
Fuck. He knew.
“Of course I know, Gavin,” Derry answered, as if Gavin had spoken aloud. “Everything about Lilah is written all over your face as if you tattooed it there in neon ink.”
“Is that what they’re doing in all the Bangkok brothels these days, Derry? That the new fashion?”
“Quit deflecting. You can’t be this unstable in the middle of your conference.”
Or ever. Those words weren’t spoken, but they hung in the air anyway.
Gavin let out a long sigh that sounded like a defeat. “I know.”
“Is that why you’re avoiding her?”
“I’m not avoiding her. Not technically,” he added with a hand held out toward Derry to ward off the inevitable argument. “I needed some time to clear my thoughts and plan out the next step.”
“The next step?”
“Yes.”
“Which is...?” Derry looked at his wrist. Twenty years ago a watch would have rested there. The habit was deeply ingrained. Nonplussed, Derry fished around in his back pocket and found his smartphone.
“You have exactly three more minutes of my time.”
“What’s the rush?”
“Three Finnish representatives from that enormous mobile phone manufacturer. Hair like blonde ice and thighs so toned they could press tortillas in them.”
“So glad you’re using this conference as an opportunity to further your business goals,” Gavin said dryly.
Derry gave him a toothy smile and simply said, “Two minutes.”
An unnecessary wave of anxiety flared up in Gavin, along with a longing for Lilah so immediate he could taste her in his mouth, the sweet flavor making him stagger backward, his tight ass muscles hitting a small library table behind his couch.
“I’m afraid, all right?” Gavin looked away. “There. Are you happy?”
“Afraid of what?”
Gavin clenched his teeth and swallowed. He tasted copper. “Afraid she’ll find me beastly.”
“There’s a perfect choice of words.”
“You know what I mean.”
Derry blinked rapidly, then ran a hand the size of a small Chihuahua through his bushy, dark hair. “No, Gavin,” he said softly. “I don’t know.” His face was unguarded, and as his eyes met his brother’s, Gavin felt a kinship.
He was struggling with feelings of love greater than he could explain.
And he couldn’t explain them to a brother who was pained never to have felt them.
“No one wants to be rejected, Derry. Especially not for being their true self.”
“You can’t be anyone else.”
“We certainly do pretend,” Gavin whispered, feeling both more childlike and ancient than his soul had a right to be.
“That’s because if we didn’t, we’d be whipped to the bone every day just from being in public. And I don’t mean just us. Not just shifters. Society is a cruel mistress, Gavin. Being just the tiniest bi
t different is a curse.”
“Then our animal DNA is the fucking megacurse.”
Derry looked puzzled. “Really? You despise it that much?”
“I created a biotech empire to study it so we could find a way to neutralize the shifter genes, for God’s sake. What do you think?” That research was still fifty years away from bearing fruit. By then, Gavin would be headed into his final third of life. Perhaps it could help his children.
Their children.
His and Lilah’s.
Derry waved his hand as if shooing a fly. “I think that’s all a lovely excuse, but I embrace my power. No technology or intervention should be allowed to strip me of my essential animal inside.”
Gavin felt slapped.
“And,” Derry added as he looked at his smartphone and made his way toward the door, “I think that the harder you fight it, the stronger it becomes.”
“You should write greeting cards for a living, Derry,” Gavin said in a wry tone.
“If this billionaire heir thing falls through, I might give it a try.”
Chapter 15
At the end of her shift, Lilah said good-bye to Carl and the other servers with a faint wave and a heavy heart. Her belief in Gavin’s love was wavering under the weight of unwelcome doubt and shame.
He’d ignored her. That night, while she served drinks, she’d watched him smile and chat with his guests. Gavin Stanton was the perfect host, an attractive businessman at the top of his field, fabulously rich and powerful. Respected, even feared. And then he’d left the gathering without a word, a secret smile, or even looking her way.
Had she been a fool?
She certainly felt like one.
Instead of heading straight to her room and her empty bed, she stepped out the back door of the kitchen into the crisp, dark night and inhaled the clean air into her lungs. In spite of herself, she manufactured excuses for him as she walked. The most convincing one was that he’d been warned to leave her alone or she’d be fired. But then why hadn’t he spoken to her? Sent a note? A discreet word through one of his handsome brothers?
Hugging her arms around herself, she turned down a narrow path that led around the building to the lake. The conference guests, visible inside through the panoramic windows, continued their networking and power plays.
Lilah was sick of them. Other than Webb, they’d been polite enough, even when they’d been filled to the gills with free top-shelf liquor. But Gavin had given them the attention she wanted. Comically and pathetically, she was jealous of them.
With a wry smile, she kicked a stone out of her way with her designer-clad toe and gazed up at the sky. The fresh air was just what she needed. The path forked off into the forest—to his house, to him—and she resolutely took the other one.
Through the trees, the lake was a black oval at the base of the mountains, quiet and shining in the moonlight, inviting her closer. She tightened her arms over her chest and strode on, determined to enjoy the beautiful Montana night, or at least witness it. If she didn’t get a chance to return—
If. She bit her lip, fighting tears. She’d been so sure. She’d felt his love, felt it.
Her heel caught in a gap between the flagstones, sending her reeling. With a small cry, she reached out for balance, convinced she was going to fall flat on her face, but instead felt a warm, strong hand grab her elbow from behind.
Instead of gratitude, fear washed over her. She hadn’t wanted to fall, but the realization that a man had been so close, silently following her through the dark, triggered instinctive terror.
And then she realized it must be Gavin, her love, her One, and she turned with hope blooming in her chest only to see the leering face behind her was none other but Mason Webb.
“Careful,” he said in her ear, his breath foul with alcohol. His fingers slid over her elbow and clamped onto her upper arm. “Such a pretty girl all alone. You wouldn’t want to get hurt.”
“Mr. Webb,” Lilah said firmly, drawing away. “I’m fine now. Let me go.”
His voice became sickeningly tender. “What kind of man would that make me? Letting you run into danger again?” His second hand caught her other arm while the first moved over her shoulder. They roved and explored, clumsy but strong, eager.
She pivoted out of his arms, but he lunged forward and recaptured her.
“Let me go,” she repeated, more loudly, filling her lungs to scream. Years ago she’d learned to trust her instincts. Drunk and pathetic or not, Mason Webb was more dangerous than she’d thought. Stronger, too. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, giving her the strength to fight or run. “You’ll get kicked out of the club if you hurt me.”
“Who says I’m going to hurt you?” He tightened his arms around her shoulders while one leg stretched out behind her feet, knocking her off balance. When she staggered, he embraced her. “Careful. See? I’m helping. You don’t want to fall.”
“Don’t tell me what I want.” Heart racing, she elbowed him in the ribs and pulled away.
He grunted but then said with revolting pleasure, “I knew you’d be feisty.”
She kicked him in the shins, too unsteady in the heels on the flagstones to knee him in the crotch, and began to run. But only a heartbeat later, something—his foot, he’s right behind me—caught her ankles, and she felt herself falling, saw the ground coming up to meet her.
“Help!” she shouted as she hit the flagstones. “Help!” Pain shooting through her knees and palms, she rolled to one side and raised her legs to kick, to scream bloody murder, to fight.
She was losing already.
Lilah closed her eyes and thought the word, focusing on it like an electromagnetic impulse, her whole soul concentrated, calling out to Gavin the only way she knew how as Webb’s hands ravaged her.
HELP.
“You don’t need help,” he said, plucking a shoe from her foot and lifting it to his face with a smile. After a disgusting, elaborate inhalation, he said, “You have me.”
She stabbed the other heel into his shin. “Get away from me.”
With more grace than a drunk loser should have, he swerved out of her reach and tackled her on the ground.
“You’ll regret this.” She thrashed in his arms, moving her leg back to crush his balls. “I’ll tell everyone. I’ll kill you, you bastard.”
“No, killing him will be my job,” said a voice behind her. Gavin.
Her soul soared. He’d heard her.
Mine.
With her back on the cold flagstones, Lilah watched Mason Webb jump to his feet and approach Gavin. “It’s not what it looks like,” he said calmly, as if he thought he could talk his way out assaulting her, one man to another. “She fell and I—”
Gavin’s right hook shut him up, snapping Webb’s head back and drawing the rest of his body with it.
Then Gavin strode past Webb’s crumpled body and knelt at Lilah’s side.“Are you all right?” His hands rapidly explored her face, her neck, her torso, her legs. “You’re bleeding.”
Shaking her head, Lilah said, “I’m fine,” and started to get to her feet.
Gavin gripped her leg. Something changed in his voice, something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I scraped my knee when I fell.” She didn’t like how that exempted her attacker, so she added, “When Mr. Webb here knocked me down.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Webb said, rubbing his jaw. “The young lady lost her balance. Is it a crime to lend a helping hand these days?”
“She’s bleeding.” Gavin’s voice was a growl.
Lilah stared at him, and her heart stopped beating.
Were those...were his teeth...elongating?
She reached up and touched his face, squinting in the dark to see...
Coarse, wiry hair. And his eyes. Something was wrong...
Gavin pushed away from her and advanced on Webb, who had begun to babble, his eyes so wide she could see th
e whites all the way around his iris as he took in Gavin, whose shoulders broadened as his torso stretched like taffy, seams splitting on his clothes, his ears...pulling up?
Was that fur? And oh, my God, his eyes. His legs.
All four of them.
“She fell. Ask her, she’ll tell you. Tell him, Lilah, for God’s sake, Mr. Stanton, Gavin, Gav, she fell and I was help—”
Gavin was gone. Now there was fur and yellow eyes and flashing teeth and the deep-throated growl of an animal, an ancient predator, a killer.
But she’d heard his voice.
Mine.
The figure that loped away from Lilah and knocked Webb to the ground was not that of a man. His forepaws struck Webb’s chest with a dull snap, as if Lilah could hear Webb’s ribs cracking. Gavin had transformed into a silvery beast, his powerful legs moving with muscled swiftness, an animal on a mission.
On the hunt.
The screams from Webb’s throat turned into a gurgling mess as the writhing bodies—one human, one lupine—became a blur in the shadows of the woods.
She froze, unable to believe what she was witnessing in the shaft of moonlight that fell through the trees.
A huge gray wolf shaking off the last tattered remains of suit cloth. A wolf where Gavin had been. A wolf attacking Webb, growling and snarling, his jaws—sharp-toothed jaws—snapping at the screaming man’s throat.
And then another wolf was there. And this one launched itself at the first one—at Gavin, she thought in terror, struggling to reconcile everything—while other men rushed over to Webb and dragged him into the woods. She saw a sweatshirt, a beard, and realized one of the men was Edward.
The wolves rolled together, fighting with their teeth and claws, making horrifying, feral noises as they battled.
A large hand rested on her shoulder, spooking her. She jumped.
“Lilah,” Derry said, lifting her from the ground as if she were a fifteen-pound stray on the streets of Boston. “Time to go.”
“What’s happening?” She wriggled in his arms, furious to be manhandled again. “Let me go.”
A massive oak tree of a man, Derry easily overpowered her, hauling her away from the others into the woods. “I’m bringing you to Edward’s house where you’ll be safe.” Gravitas made his voice low. Soothing.
